Friday, 01 March 2002

As we were leaving the bathroom at work, one of the guys told me about an office party he once attended. They had arranged for some games and needed to divide into two groups. One person stood up and said “Crumplers on the left, folders on the right.” Then he sat back down and refused to explain further.

Eventually it dawned on people as to what he meant. One person would figure it out and whisper it to the next. There would be the occasional “eewww” or disgusted look, but as word spread quickly around the room, people started to gather.

The surprising thing was that the group was divided almost perfectly 50/50. On each side there was a good mix of young and old, men and women, managers and worker-bees.

I’m left wondering what the guy from the party thinks about in quiet moments. Imagine sitting across from him at a meeting, he appears to be listening but really he’s thinking about weird stuff like crumpling vs. folding.

About 5 seconds after I get back to my desk, an IM comes in: “So, are you a crumpler or a folder?”